Page 266 - English for Writing Research Papers

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The Abstract immediately tells the readers the specific topic of the paper and then
what the author’s goal is. Instead, the Introduction sets the context in very general
terms.

The abstract then continues as follows.

abstract We find that the sudden relaxation of the curvature at this end leads to a burst of
flexural waves, whose dynamics are described by a self-similar solution with no adjustable

parameters. These flexural waves locally increase the curvature in the rod, and we argue that

this counterintuitive mechanism is responsible for the fragmentation of brittle rods under
bending.
As you can see, the Abstract gives no further background information, but high-
lights what the authors found in their research. An absolute minimum number of
words have been used. This gives the Abstract substantial impact by telling readers
only what they need to know to enable them to decide whether to read the whole
paper. As is standard for Abstracts, no references to the literature are made.

On the other hand about 50% of the rest of the Introduction is dedicated to helping

the readers see that the general trend given in the first two sentences is being coun-
tered by another line of research. In this case, references to the literature are made.
Readers are alerted to the alternative trend by the link word nevertheless .

introduction Nevertheless a growing number of works have included physical consider-
ations: surface energy contributions [6], nucleation and growth properties of the fracture
process [7], elastic buckling [8, 9], and stress wave propagation [10]. Usually, in dynamic
fragmentation, the abrupt application of fracturing forces (e.g. by an impact) triggers
numerous elementary breaking processes, making a statistical study of the fragments sizes
possible. This is opposed to quasi-static fragmentation where a solid is crushed or broken at
small applied velocities [11].

The concluding sentence of the Abstract is:

abstract A simple experiment supporting the claim is presented.

This eight-word sentence is expanded considerably in the Introduction, by describ-
ing more about what the experiment consisted in, and the result it gave. Note: the
text reported below is the rest of the Introduction in its entirety.

introduction Here we consider such a quasi-static experiment whereby a dry spaghetti is
bent beyond its limit curvature. This experiment is famous as, most of the time, the pasta
does not break in half but typically in three to ten pieces. In this Letter, we explain this
multiple failure process and point out a general mechanism of cascading failure in rods: a

breaking event induces strong flexural waves which trigger other breakings, leading to an
avalanche-like process.